“It’s such a personal thing depending on where you’re at, where you’re going and what you need at that time. I would say when I’m feeling overwhelmed and don’t know what to do, taking some really deep breaths and naming whatever it is I’m feeling is really important. But other skills which I have in my little toolbox would be journaling, to blurt out everything when you really need to clear your mind, meditation which has become a core part of my life now, talking to someone you trust and some type of fitness. At the moment I’m finding yoga really important. There’s something so calming and restorative about yoga; even if you’re going at a fast flow pace you’re having to incorporate your breath with each move which takes a lot of discipline and focus. Stilling the mind is really helpful when trying to manage your mental health. How often do we actually just switch our minds off and slow down? There’s so much in silence and stillness.”
“I would love if we didn’t have a mental health awareness week because, in an ideal world, it would just be something that we all consider as normal. We don’t have a physical health awareness week because people are expected to get physically sick at times in their life, and that’s how I feel about mental health. But why I think it could be quite helpful is that if everyone’s talking about it then it promotes and highlights the importance of having those conversations, squashes the taboo, helps step away from that stigma attached to mental health issues and is seen as just a part of our colourful tapestry of life and just the way we’re all wired. Creating awareness around this will hopefully help people feel more accepted in speaking about their mental health difficulties. What I would love to see from businesses particularly is allowing employees to take time out when they do have a mental health issue, making them comfortable to be able to call up and say: “My anxiety is really high right now, I can’t make it in”, just like we might say “I’ve had severe food poisoning, I can’t make it in,” and take that as a really important indicator of somebody needing to have their rest to make their minds healthy again.”
“It’s so hard because when you love someone you just want them to be okay... This is way easier said than done, but having patience, and just being there, being a rock and being a consistent person in someone’s life could be really beneficial. Sometimes the person suffering might not know what to say or how to say it or might not need your advice, but just need you to be there.”
“I’ve been a plus-size model for almost a decade now and, alongside that, I’ve always spoken about body confidence and positivity. What I’ve come to the conclusion of, especially in my older years, is that it’s not an end destination, the journey continues to go on. Falling in love with yourself constantly ebbs and flows.”
“The fashion industry is doing a great job in bringing plus-size models onto high fashion catwalks and I love seeing campaigns that are using everyday normal people. I think moving forwards, a change I want to see is diversity being the norm, not just as a tokenistic approach. Let’s see it as the norm and let’s not be surprised by it.”
